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APT

ABSTRACT

The continuous development of evolving malware types creates a need to study and understand how antivirus products detect and alert users. This paper investigates today’s antivirus solutions and how their false-positive alerts affect software development and the distribution process. The authors discuss and demonstrate how antivirus detection deals with bespoke applications and how this can be reversed and manipulated to evade detection, allowing the process to be used by malicious software developers. The paper also demonstrates how an undetected malicious piece of software can be developed without using advanced hiding techniques, which will also be capable of overcoming reputation-based detection systems.

Keywords

ABSTRACT

The revelation of long-standing espionage operations by state actors against private entities over the past decade speaks to an application of cyber capabilities that shifts the focus from direct and ancillary use in high-intensity confrontations to indirect supply- chain attacks and economic warfare. By observing recent cyber-related events within the oil and gas industries, conclusions can be drawn on emerging patterns of attack and the increasing role of non-state actors in geopolitical conflicts proliferated by the growing weight of information as a means of expressing power. This analysis also presents the opportunity to scrutinize future implications of cyber conflict, with respect to both a current and historical context.